The Archean to Late-Paleozoic architecture of the Oulad Dlim Massif, the main Gondwanan indenter during the collision with Laurentia

The Oulad Dlim Massif, located west of the Archean part of the Reguibat Rise of the West African Craton, has an areal extent close to 36,000 km2. Despite its tectonic importance, as it may have been the main indenter during the late Paleozoic Laurentia-Gondwana collision that formed supercontinent Pangea, this region has remained unstudied for a long time. Based on previous research done by Spanish geologists before 1965, the pioneering work done by Rjimati and Zemmouri (2002 and personal communication) between 2000 and 2010, and new fieldwork conducted after 2010 in collaboration with Moroccan exploration geologists, we carried out a massif-wide study that includes sensitive high-resolution ion mass spectrometry (SHRIMP) zircon UPb geochronology, modern petrography, geochemistry, and isotope geology. Here we present these results and discuss their interpretation in the context of other circum-Atlantic orogens and terranes.